Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Post Modern Art It Is Not

Frederick R Smith has moved to Frederick R. Smith Speaks (substack.com)

This edition of Frederick R. Smith Speaks is a reprint of a paper your author wrote back in 2004. Please accept my apologies for the salacious content but considering where we are today, this blog is comparatively mild.

If a prominent Christian says anything about another religion the media would go crazy. The dubious use of the right-wing mantra aside, the media finds it perfectly acceptable to defend things that are blasphemous to Christians. For example, remember the “artwork” that consisted of cutouts of female sexual parts fashioned into a likeness of the Virgin Mary? The New York Times (The Gray Lady) wrote on October 9, 1999, that the “Holy Virgin Mary” exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art was “Witty… attractive… colorful and glowing. The first impression it makes, before you decipher the little [porn] cutouts, is it’s cheerful, even sweet.” [1]

How nice of the Times to take a hunk of pornography and make it a nice and wonderful thing. Just think today if somebody would do the same thing with an object of the Islamic “culture.” The Gray Lady would go into ballistic orbit.

More recently in 2002, one Gunther von Hagens leaped into uncharted waters by making artwork out of death. This gentleman is a German anatomist and he created “art” that consists of a man seated at a chessboard with his brain exposed. Another lovely creation by this man is a woman with a pregnant belly peeled back to reveal an 8-month-old fetus curled inside. There are more works equally shocking.

The most salient part of this story is the fact that this putrid “art” consists of the actual preserved parts of human tissue. The art community displayed this rank content throughout Europe and Japan. Von Hagens developed a technique called “plastination” whereby epoxy replaced body fluids and other elements thereby creating plastic-like body parts. He claims this art is like Leonardo da Vinci’s. While it is true that Leonardo studied cadavers, he did that to better understand the human body. Von Hagens obviously has reduced the human body to a simple object. So, he denigrates not only the human body but also life itself.

Extremists continue to invoke the First Amendment to protect all manner of despicable activity. This ilk insists that the government support this “artwork.” The quintessential example is the “Piss Christ” (crucifix inside a jar of urine), that heroic effort and thought-provoking work by a National Endowment of Arts (NEA) funded artist. Any attempt to squelch this “art” by such means as attempting to eliminate taxpayer funds to the NEA brings forth the “censorship” Pavlov Dog reaction. [2]

On page 129 of Robert H. Bork’s best-selling book “Slouching Towards Gomorrah” he provides the following account:

Art, by adopting many of the techniques and much of the content of popular entertainment, is becoming popular entertainment. And popular art, paintings of tomato cans, is taken as high art. James Gardner notes the incongruity that art has never been more admired, more adulated, than it is now, that it draws larger crowds and attracts more money than ever before, and yet the art itself is impoverished. Here, as in popular music and television entertainment, it is not that there is no genuinely serious art at all; it is that there is so much that is meaningless, uninspired, untalented, or perverse. Perhaps the Sixties brought in a fascination with the perverted, but lack of meaning was evident well before that decade.  In a prestigious New York museum in the early 1950’s, a piece of black burlap nailed to a board was presented as art. In a London museum, I thought I had come upon leftovers from a carpet laying: strips of brown felt in a heap in the middle of the room. Then I saw that the pile had a title. I asked a sculptor on the Yale faculty what his sculpture, which looked like a half-melted tree stump, represented. He said quite seriously: “Whatever you want it to be.” Yale was willing to support a man whose idea of art was a three-dimensional Rorschach test. It is thus no cause for surprise that our great universities now offer courses on comic books.

The beat goes on. Recently, at a New York City subway station, the arts (cough, cough) community displayed certain works to see the public’s reaction. This “art” was nothing more than 37 black boxes, which caused a panic because they taped these fine specimens to the walls and benches. The “art” teacher praised the work of his student who received an “A” even though officials evacuated the subway station and conducted a full-scale probe by a bomb task force. What was the total expense to the city for this emergency? How does $25,000.00 grab you? Why would somebody try such a childish act just two miles from the former World Trade Center? Simple, much of the “art” community is out of touch with reality.

In addition to the above, I had the pleasure of personally experiencing the wonders of postmodern art, which you will find enlightening. This author passed a particularly “wonderful” and “thought-provoking” storefront collection each day while making the trip from and to my place of employment. Taken on January 10, 2003, the picture to the left is one of many of the “arts” pieces displayed. [3] The picture shows a small meat-slicing machine with a nude Barbie doll positioned so that the blade would cut through the abdomen area. Recently, the curators replaced this “art” with a canvas splattered with paint for a visual treat depicting something unfathomable. Another excellent product of our educational “system” (keyword).

In May 2003, our friends at the “art” (cough, cough) window placed a series of paper airplanes in this display. [4] The planes were hanging on strings with indelibly marked interesting phrases on the fuselage dealing with the future. Some of these paper airplanes incorporate the more interesting phrases as shown below in bold type. Your author’s comments follow each one.

In the future, the word species will have no meaning

It is obvious that the creator of this “art” may believe that people and animals must be equal. Unfortunately, this is the typical worldview of radical groups such as People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals or the Animal Liberation Front. In reality, these aforementioned groups generally care little about people. In order to be clear and not branded as a person that paints the broad brush, it is necessary to mention that there are indeed good groups like the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

In the future, social hierarchy will be considered the same thing as fascism

So here we have it, any hint of people who may have any wealth or standing whatsoever are fascist. This is the radical egalitarian philosophy that says all people should be equal in all ways. If so, then it would be prudent to ask these people if they would be comfortable with an EMT's life saving service or going to a doctor to have heart surgery? Are neurosurgeons going to be considered fascist because they are at the top of the medical field? Cut me a break.

In the future, the idea of celebrity will be abolished

What bothers me is the fact that people who believe this crazy statement are many of the same people who go bonkers over movie stars. How duplicitous indeed.

In the future, the workers will own the corporations

This is not a novel concept as there are businesses owned by the workers. What is difficult to grasp is that this concept flies in the face of small business. Does the artist who created this airplane believe that the laws should prohibit a family to own a small business and employ workers that are not part owners? 

In the future, the pleasures of some will not be the cause of pain for others

Does this mean that there will be no pain anymore? Or does this mean that people will no longer have pleasure?

In the future, there will be no paper money

This is not too far fetched, as it is common today for us to buy goods and services with electronic transfers. With money no longer backed by anything other than “faith” in the system, this amounts to a precarious situation (fiat money). What will become of small purchases between individuals? Will we be using some other means of exchange such as precious stones or metals? No more giving money to a poor person on the street. So much for a teen going out to shovel snow and get a reward for the effort. The possibility of abuse and manipulation of electronic money is much greater than posed by the counterfeiting of paper currency. On the other hand, electronic money makes it much easier to track people.

In the future, same sex unions will be common

With the radical influence the lavender mafia has on all aspects of our society, for sure this airplane has landed. Also, to “come out” gets one the equivalent of a ticker tape parade. As a married heterosexual man, we see the system blabber that it is homophobic to recognize my biological and mental state as straight.

In the future, country names will be only used to name cheeses

Ah, here we have the New World Order. Nationhood will be obsolete as we are all to be totally “equal” in every aspect in the globalized world. So, does the artist really support such a concept? Quick, seek an arrest warrant to see if your author is a right-wing wacko storing ammunition and “anti-government” literature. Nevertheless, since this “artist” used the word cheese rather than the phrase “New World Order” that places him or her in the exempt category. Remember, place only right-wingers in mental institutions for mentioning cheese with respect to national borders.

In the future, there will be no organized religions

The religion of Communism is no religion. It is also true that most theocracies include tyrants who have rationalized their depredations by selective interpretation of holy texts. Overblown and inaccurate “his-story” aside, the bad side of the Crusades and the Inquisition are two examples. So, it is worth looking at one entry in the balance sheet – in three centuries the Crusades claimed two million while Pol Pot in Cambodia directed the murder of about the same number of people in just three years. How many movies have we seen on the silver screen about the evils of Nazism? Plenty. However, it is also prudent to ask how many find the evils of Communism shocking. Very few indeed! Considering the promotion of Marxist ideals in many of our schools, the answer is self-evident. Specifically, those who promote Marxist ideals are like alcoholics. They do not realize that there is a problem with their thought process. Communism and its runner up cousin, overarching socialism, make people feel good but the reality is starkly different. I can hear it now “Oh no Fred is a McCarthyite!” Quick, make an appointment with the psychologist’s office for Fred. I am sure the government will be glad to pay the bill, no questions asked. Now that indeed is the good part of socialized medicine!

One day in the future, there will be no science fiction

So, does our artist friend really think that all of today’s science fiction will become reality? It is time to order the van to take this guy (or others who may have collaborated to create this wonderful art) to a shrink. Let us be fair and equal. I just got back from my appointment for using the term “New World Order.”

One day in the future we will not seek happiness through buying things

There may be some merit to this because of the materialism we are faced with each day.  Nevertheless, today we buy many good things for pleasure such as books. What about the things that we do not own, such as a vacation? Will the system supply everything for free? It just might with robots and replicating machines!

The above paper airplanes are socialist-utopian-demonic-mindless-muck and the concepts contained on each one will not work and never will work. Nevertheless, I feel sorry for the people who believe such things. In fact, no matter what information we present, even the most intelligent and salient facts do not penetrate their Marxist worldview.

Notes:

  1. To see The New York Times archives coverage of the Virgin Mary art scandal, click here.
  2. Fast forward to the debased world of 2021 and consider the Caustic Cancel Culture Pogrom (CCCP). The selective canceling of anything based on nature illustrates the height of their hypocrisy. Specifically, the CCCP elites and their puppets will defend the debased things they cherish as free speech. Meanwhile, they show no compassion and eliminate what they think is a threat to their debased narrative.
  3. Image captured in 2003 with a low resolution not so smart vintage cellular phone.  
  4. Ibid.
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Cogent Author and Publisher, Frederick R. Smith
Cogent Editor, Sean Tinney


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